How to Make Baklava in 15-Minutes, Plus Baking – Better Than You Know Who’s

How to Make Baklava in 15-Minutes, plus baking time 🙂

Some of the best Baklava recipes out there take almost an entire day to make. I have one question, “why?” Let’s make Baklava in 15 minutes instead. Sound good? I’ve had the pleasure of making Baklava many times over the years all while using a simple technique. I think most people see making Baklava as labor intensive and overall hard to make Baklava. After today, you’ll see it’s not really hard to make great Baklava.

Baklava is actually simple to make with my technique.

Quickly, What is Baklava?

Baklava (/ˈbɑːkləvɑː/, /bɑːkləˈvɑː/,or /bəˈklɑːvə/; [bɑːklɑvɑː]) is a rich, sweet dessert pastry made of layers of phyllo filled with chopped nuts and sweetened and held together with syrup or honey. It is characteristic of the cuisines of the Levant, the Caucasus, Balkans, Maghreb, and of Central and West Asia.

How to Make Baklava With Special Honey Syrup

How To Make Baklava

Baklava is made from layers after layers of Phyllo dough with an assortment of nuts between each layer then finished with a honey syrup. ( We do not add refined white sugar). The key is the order in which you layer the Phyllo dough. You do not layer a piece or two then just add nuts and repeat. If you do that you’ll be missing out on the grand texture experience. There is a system. You should watch the video below to see for yourself how the layers come together to create some of the best Baklava of a lifetime.

Photo – Baked Baklava, waiting for the honey syrup 🙂 See how crispy it is? The technique we’ll be using allows us to build these layers only to turn around and pour warm syrup all over and, yes, KEEP all the crispy layers. Sounds almost impossible, a true culinary masterpiece…

NO SUGAR ADDED –

How to Make Baklava in 15-Minutes

Super sorry sir, super awesome Iron Chef Michael Symon that I really like and respect a ton. In a taste test, if he had to make his exact recipe off Food Network he would get Chopped by the judges compared to Butter-n-Thyme’s Baklava recipe. Zero question. Zero 🙂 But I doubt that’s his personal recipe. Michael Symon is such an amazing Chef. Everything he makes is gold.

How much sugar does Iron Chef Michael Symon add? – 3 cups –

How much sugar does Butter-n-Thyme’s recipe add, zero

Boom, natural ingredients verse sugar. We Win!!!

Step by Step – How to Make (15-Minute) Baklava, Plus Cook Time

Watch Video For Full Technique

To start the Baklava process butter a 9 by 13 casserole dish. Try to cover every bit of the casserole dish.

Roll Out Phyllo Dough –

If you are not able to work quickly you’ll need to cover the Phyllo dough with a lightly damp towel. Reason: so the phyllo dough does not dry out. The drying encourages cracks in the phyllo dough. I did not cover mine this time and usually don’t. I was finished in about 10 minutes. Not long enough to cause drying out issues.

Lay out the first piece of phyllo dough on to a 9 by 13 buttered casserole dish

Cover phyllo dough with melted butter

No need to overdo it with butter. This is KEY to success. You’ll be adding enough over each layer that complete coverage of the phyllo dough equals a mistake. – Watch the video to see the full technique. Just cover enough of each sheet of phyllo dough. Enough being about 70% of each sheet.

Add a second layer of phyllo dough

Add the first layer of Pecans, Walnuts & Pistachios

As we create the layers of stacked Phyllo dough here’s the idea. We want the lowest layers of the Baklava to have the most nuts. Think of it as creating the base. And as we move higher in the phyllo dough layers we’ll use less and less nuts.

Repeat the process above until you have 4 sheets of phyllo dough left.

Lay the last 4 or 5 sheets on top of the other buttered phyllo layers. The last 4 or 5 sheets do NOT get a coating of butter. Yet

After adding the last 4 or 5 sheets of non-buttered phyllo dough it’s time to cut the baklava into serving pieces.

There are a few options with the way you decided to cut the baklava.

Image Below: Cutting three straight lines down the casserole dish running the cuts lengthwise. Then making cross cuts. A more traditional cut

Second is making a crosscut starting from corner to corner, then making additional slices running parallel to the first cut. Then running cross cuts again the first cuts perpendicular. Crosshatch pattern.

Next, add butter to the tops of all the pieces of phyllo dough. This will ensure beautiful golden brown baklava.

Optional: Add pistachios to the top before the oven. Note: the pistachios will take on a bit of color and offer a nutty toasted favor note.

Into the oven. I cooked mine @ 350 degrees for around 25 minutes. You’ll want to read the instructions on your package of phyllo dough and monitor the cooking process. Make sure to check on it after 10 minutes. Keep looking to make sure you do not burn the phyllo dough. Baklava can go from perfect to burnt in only a short few minutes or two. So do not trust the package fully. You must keep an eye on the baking process until your familiar with your cook times.

Making the Baklava Syrup Glaze

Add, high-quality butter, cinnamon, nutmeg, honey & salt

Once out of the oven, allow the baklava to cool for about 5 to 10 minutes. Then pour on as much or as little syrup as you like. While pouring be thinking about the syrup wanting to soak into the baklava and move to the bottom of the casserole dish. You’ll be surprised how the syrup doesn’t destroy the crispiness on top of the baklava. Be sure to pour enough to cover each piece. I like covering every piece once, then going over each piece a second time.

For the Syrup:

Directions

Position a rack in the lower third of the oven; preheat to 350 degrees F. Combine the nuts, cinnamon and ground crackers in a bowl.

Brush a 9-by-13-inch baking dish with some of the butter. Layer 10 pieces of phyllo in the dish, brushing each piece with butter before adding the next (keep the remaining dough covered with a damp towel). Sprinkle a quarter of the nut mixture over the dough. Layer 4 pieces of phyllo on top, brushing each with butter before adding the next; sprinkle with another quarter of the nut mixture. Add 4 more phyllo pieces on top, brushing each with butter, then add another quarter of the nut mixture, 4 more pieces of phyllo with butter, and the remaining nuts.

Layer the remaining 10 pieces of phyllo on top of the nuts, brushing each with butter; brush the top piece with extra butter. Cut into the baklava to make strips, about 1 1/2 inches wide. Then make diagonal slices, about 1 1/2 inches apart, to create a diamond pattern. Bake until golden, about 1 hour.

Meanwhile, make the syrup: Bring the sugar, honey and 1 1/2 cups water to a boil in a saucepan over medium heat and cook, 10 to 15 minutes. Add the lemon juice and boil 2 more minutes, then let cool slightly.

Pour the syrup over the warm baklava; let soak, uncovered, at least 6 hours or overnight. Garnish with nuts.